Originally Posted by
vapilot2004
Are you telling me that according to the court transcript, the Chirac pilot and airport firemen gave absolutely no testimony?
Certainly not as far as I'm aware, having done some cursory digging. It's repeated endlessly in press articles and blog posts though, because it makes for good copy. Variations on the story include F-BTSC passing within 7m, 70m or 7 yards(!) of the alleged Chirac 747, the alleged 747 itself either on the runway and exiting, at a holding point or *actually crossing the runway across F-BTSC's path*. Some even have Chirac himself "looking on in horror" as the flaming Concorde passed by.
Now you'd think that if any of this were true, Chirac would at least have said something in public by now - or the 747 pax and crew would have been called as witnesses.
This lack of confirmation - combined with so many variations in the telling - suggests to me that the whole story is complete hogwash.
As an aside, while French officials did and do sometimes travel on AF charters, the usual mode of travel in Chirac's day was a government-owned A310.